Welcome to the first actual entry in Accounting Against the Machine.
Look at us. We have content now.
For the inaugural educational post, I figured I should probably start with the thing that surprised the hell out of me when I rediscovered my own QuickBooks Online Accountant account:
There is an absurd amount of training sitting in there for free.
Not “free” as in here are three introductory videos and now please give us $799.
Actually free.
Training. Certifications. Practice environments. ProAdvisor resources. Continuing education opportunities. Tools designed specifically for accountants and bookkeepers.
And apparently I’m doing this now.
So if you’ve landed here because you’re interested in learning QuickBooks Online, getting better at supporting QBO users, exploring bookkeeping, becoming a ProAdvisor, or simply making yourself considerably harder for a robot to replace, here’s where I’d start.
First: What the Hell Is QBOA?
QBOA stands for QuickBooks Online Accountant.
It’s essentially the accountant/bookkeeper side of the QuickBooks ecosystem. Rather than having a regular QuickBooks company and working only inside that business, QBOA gives accounting professionals a central place to work with multiple clients and access tools intended specifically for that kind of work.
If you’re supporting businesses using QuickBooks, that’s a pretty important distinction.
I originally created my QBOA account when I was directly supporting QuickBooks Online customers.
We were encouraged to create one because one of the best ways to help somebody who’s saying, “I clicked this thing and now everything is fucked” is to be able to go look at the thing.
Obviously that is not Intuit’s official troubleshooting terminology.
It is mine.
Then I moved into other things and basically forgot my QBOA account existed.
Until recently.
Now I’m halfway through certification and wondering why the hell I wasn’t taking advantage of all of this sooner.
The Accountant Side Has Some Very Nice Toys
A QBOA account gives you access to resources and tools built for people who support multiple QuickBooks clients.
Depending on the current Intuit offering and your account, you’ll find things such as accountant-specific tools, client management features, training, certification resources, and opportunities to work toward ProAdvisor status.
Intuit is also evolving this environment into its newer Intuit Accountant Suite, so don’t be alarmed if screenshots, menu names, or interfaces change while you’re learning.
Software likes to move the furniture immediately after you memorize where everything is.
It’s one of the fundamental laws of IT.
Okay, What’s a ProAdvisor?
This was the part that got my attention.
The QuickBooks ProAdvisor Program gives accountants, bookkeepers, consultants, support professionals, and other people working with QuickBooks a structured way to learn the product and demonstrate that knowledge through certification.
And certification isn’t just about collecting a shiny badge.
You’re learning how the software actually behaves.
That’s what I care about.
There is an enormous difference between knowing:
Click this, then this, then this.
and understanding:
Here’s what we’re trying to accomplish, here’s why we’re doing it this way, and here’s what QuickBooks is doing with the information.
The second person is considerably harder to stump.
That’s who I want to become.
That’s who I want to train.
Where to Start
If you’re starting from approximately “What in God’s name is a chart of accounts?”, don’t immediately throw yourself into advanced QBO workflows and then decide you’re stupid.
You’re not.
You’re learning an entire language and the software that speaks it.
Start with the fundamentals.
If you need the accounting foundation, look at the bookkeeping training available through Intuit first. Learn what debits, credits, assets, liabilities, equity, income, and expenses actually mean.
You don’t have to fall passionately in love with accounting.
God knows I haven’t.
But understanding what the software is trying to accomplish makes troubleshooting it infinitely easier.
If you already understand accounting fundamentals, you may be ready to start working directly through the QuickBooks certification material.
Either way:
Don’t race through it just to get the badge.
The badge is nice.
Knowing what the hell you’re doing is nicer.
Use the Practice Environment
This is one of the biggest pieces of advice I can give anyone learning software:
CLICK ON SHIT.
Not in somebody’s live company file, obviously.
Please don’t destroy Brenda’s fiscal year in the name of education.
Use the sample/demo environment available to you and explore.
Create something.
Change it.
Run the report.
Look at what changed.
Go find the transaction again.
Try another workflow.
If the training tells you where something lives, don’t just memorize the sentence. Go physically find it.
I work in training, and this is something I believe strongly: clicking through a workflow yourself is different from watching somebody else do it.
Your brain needs to build the map.
My Study Method Is Not Particularly Glamorous
I’m doing this while working a full-time job, so there will be no inspirational montage in which I study accounting beside a sunlit window for six uninterrupted hours while drinking artisan coffee.
I study when I can.
I work through the training.
I take notes.
I recreate things.
If something doesn’t make sense, I go find it.
And, most importantly, I ask people who know more than I do.
I am incredibly fortunate to work with a fellow trainer who knows an absolutely stupid amount about accounting and who helps me grow constantly. I intend to share helpful learning resources and videos from them here as I’m able, along with some of the activities we create for our students.
Yes.
There will be accounting scavenger hunts.
Because if we’re going to learn this shit, we might as well have some fun.
About the Certification Exam
When you reach the assessment portion, my biggest recommendation is not to approach it like some terrifying final judgment of whether you’re capable of doing this.
It’s an assessment.
If you discover a weak area, congratulations: you found the next thing you need to learn.
Go back.
Review it.
Open the practice environment.
Do the workflow.
Figure out why your answer was wrong rather than simply memorizing the correct answer.
That’s the part that turns certification material into actual usable knowledge.
I’ll share more about the assessment itself as I progress through my own certification, because I’d rather tell you what I actually encountered than regurgitate somebody else’s bullet points and pretend I’m an expert before I’ve finished the damn thing myself.
This Category Is Going to Grow With Me
That’s really the purpose of Accounting Against the Machine.
I’m not standing at the finish line yelling instructions backward.
I’m learning too.
As I work through certification and continue training people who support QuickBooks, I’ll add what I learn here: QBO tips, walkthroughs, useful resources, videos, certification notes, troubleshooting lessons, training activities, scavenger hunts, and whatever else proves genuinely useful.
And when I learn something from somebody who knows more than I do?
I’ll tell you that too.
There is no reason for learning to be a competition.
The goal is to create more capable humans.
Next week I’m helping support a large incoming class, and I intend to train the hell out of them.
I want them asking questions.
I want them experimenting.
I want them understanding the why behind what they’re doing.
I want the people who genuinely care about this work to have every opportunity to become extraordinarily good at it.
Maybe some of them eventually become ProAdvisors too.
Maybe someday some of them work for me.
Who the hell knows where this goes?
I just know where it starts.
Welcome to Accounting Against the Machine
Despite the name, this isn’t an anti-AI project.
The point isn’t to pretend technology doesn’t exist or refuse to use tools that can make us better at what we do.
The point is to make sure we’re investing in the people, too.
AI can help me research.
It can help me organize information.
It can help me turn a chaotic pile of thoughts into something another human can actually read.
It can even occasionally make me look like an entirely different woman when I ask it to make my bottom lip slightly fuller.
We’re working on boundaries.
But it cannot replace what I love most about training: watching somebody struggle with something, helping them find the missing piece, and eventually seeing that moment when they realize:
Oh shit. I know how to do this.
That’s what we’re building here.
So create your account. Explore the training. Open the practice environment. Click on things. Ask questions. Get things wrong. Figure out why. Come back here when you need another resource.
I’ll be doing the same thing right alongside you.
Welcome, Resistance Accountant.
Let’s make you harder to replace.
Ready to follow along or start your own track? Click here to sign up for your free Intuit Accountant account and start learning today!
✦ enjoyed this entry?